Walter smiled at Patrick.
"Patrick, how good it is to see you again. And as a free man finally. How horrible that must have been." Walter told him casually, almost down right friendly.
"Yeah, I just wonder who I have to thank for my framing for a murder I didn't commit. But it seems like you are getting a taste of your own medicine." Patrick continued to eye him but with a smirk.
"I would have thought you would just be grateful to The Innocence Project. Aren't they the ones who got the information to the governor who ordered your release?" Walter told him.
Patrick stepped towards him even as Happy grabbed his arm to try and hold him back.
"You keep messing with my daughter and I'll go to prison for real, for your murder." Patrick threatened him.
Paige gasped at his words. Her attention had been divided as she looked at her Mustang.
"That's interesting Patrick, given how you couldn't trouble yourself enough to climb out of a bottle of booze and be a real man and Father to your own daughter. Throwing her into the hellscape of the foster system. You'd really risk what time you have left? When you could be trying to build the relationship you should have had with your daughter to start with." Walter told him in a cold voice.
"Walter." Paige and Megan said instantly.
"Dad. Stop this. You are not a saint and I'm big enough to take care of myself." Happy told him at the same time.
Walter smiled at Happy as he nodded.
"Yes, yes you are Happy. I'm proud of you. As for you Patrick, I'd like to just say, I want to bury the animosity and we strive forward in at least mutual acceptance of the other's presence in Happy's life. You as her Father and I as her friend. And I promise you, I'll never mess with Happy again." Walter extended his left hand.
"Friend, you don't know what the word means." Patrick scoffed.
Happy nudged her Dad as he was still just standing there. Patrick sighed but reached out and shook his hand finally.
"Fine." Patrick told him.
"So it looks like our first job is to try and figure out who is setting Walter up at being behind this attack on Drew." Paige said as she looked at the others, hoping to deescalate the situation further.
"Toby as a psychologist, it probably won't do a lot of good, but look into the prisoner they think is responsible for the attack. Let's find out who his known associates are. Arresting officers, if he's been a CI for someone, everything that can draw a line as to why someone is using him to do this to Walter. Oh and check out if they have a significant other of any kind, kids as well." Paige told him.
Toby nodded and walked over to his desk and sat down at his laptop and began working.
"Sylvester, take a look at his and any associates' financials. Let's see if any of them have gotten any odd deposits." Paige told him. "At least until Cabe can get us the email and access to his commissary as well."
"Do you want me to see if I can hack into the emails and commissary?" Sylvester asked.
"No." Paige shook her head. "It's unlikely but they could try to say we messed with it to protect Walter if you found something."
"You seem to have some knowledge of the shadier side of things." Megan smiled.
Paige nodded.
"Sadly, with Drew. What a nightmare that three years was." Paige sighed.
"You haven't seen a nightmare yet." Patrick muttered while looking at Walter.
"Happy, I'm assuming you have an engineering job?" Paige asked her while ignoring Patrick for the moment.
"I do, but I'm several days ahead of schedule if you need me to do something else." Happy told her.
Paige thought for a minute and then shook her head. "No, if you are ahead then I want you to go spend some time with your Dad. You need to be able to reconnect after all this time forced apart. And that isn't a suggestion. Go get some ice cream, or take a walk in the park. Or maybe bang some of the dents out of my Mustang." Paige grinned.
Happy rolled her eyes and then began laughing.
"The only thing we can do for your Mustang is scrap the good parts and sell them. You'll need another car." Happy smirked.
"What's wrong with her Mustang?" Patrick asked.
Happy pointed to the back of the garage.
"That sweet Mustang? What did you do to it?" Patrick groaned.
"Speaking of that, I can't believe I gave you my car and you totaled it." Megan teased.
"Uh, that was your brother's doing." Paige grinned as she reminded her. "I'm never letting Walter borrow my car again." Paige hugged his arm tightly.
"Oh sure, blame the invalid." Walter joked. "Besides, once you can drive a stick again, you can have my Jag as a replacement." Walter winked at her before he became serious and looked at Mark. "Well?"
Mark nodded.
"Your assessment of her abilities is right on the money. I think we can make this work with Paige leading. Cabe can talk to Katherine and if I need to I'll talk with Molina. We should be able to sell Centipede continuing Homeland cases with you here at the Garage." Mark told him.
Walter nodded as the group broke up leaving just Walter, Paige and Megan.
"What is wrong with you Dad? You agreed to bury the animosity and turn right around and snipe at Walter?" Happy whispered as they walked through the kitchen.
"He rankles me, pretending to be better than he is." Patrick told her.
"Your assessment of me and my abilities huh?" Paige eyed Walter.
Walter smiled.
"We had a conversation when Mark and Megan came to talk to me about taking over Mark's role until he can figure out a treatment for Megan. I told them if anything came up that restricted me from helping, that you were far more than capable of running the show if needed." Walter told a blushing Paige.
"You have that much faith in me?" Paige asked, a little surprised.
"Yes." Walter said simply.
"So what is our play for Walter then?" Megan asked them.
"That is a good question. For right now, we keep Walter as far from any of this as we can. But the three of us need to sit down and go over what the company has on its books. Based on Walter bringing me up to speed on what everyone's job is here, if Sylvester is going to have to work on clearing Walter's name, then Walter is probably going to have to work on any cases that would involve Sylvester, doing his share." Paige told them.
They both nodded and turned and sat down around Megan's desk so she could go over the cases.
"I know you are just at the start of your relationship with Walter, but you'd be wise to cut it short." Patrick told Paige as she was fixing herself a cup of coffee.
Paige's eyebrow rose up as she looked at him.
"Shouldn't you be with your daughter somewhere else, making up for lost time? Anywhere else for that matter…Mr Quinn." Paige asked.
"Names Patrick if you didn't catch it earlier." Patrick told her.
"I know your first name Mr Quinn. But you didn't answer my question." Paige told him coldly.
"Look, you don't know the man like I know him. I'm just trying to look out for you. Get while the getting is good." Patrick tried to explain.
"Dad, what are you doing? Leave Paige alone and don't meddle in things and where you don't belong. Get back over here and help me." Happy told him.
"Not to mention we have no proof that Walter was behind what happened to you being charged and convicted of murder. While we do have some pretty convincing circumstantial evidence that Walter was involved in getting that information to The Innocence Project." Toby chimed in as he came back from the bathroom.
"Right, so it is a complete coincidence that a week after I tried to stand up for my daughter against that monster I'm suddenly charged and then later convicted of a murder I had no way or reason to commit?" Patrick asked them.
"Mr Quinn, first, I had a Father. I don't need you trying to look out for me. Now either go help your daughter do what she wants to do, or leave the building. You agreed earlier to mutual acceptance with Walter. You are not living up to that agreement." Paige told him firmly.
Patrick grumbled but turned and stalked away with Happy.
"Well to be fair, he was just trying to warn you Paige." Toby told her.
Paige nodded.
"I know he was, but I have a pretty good idea of what Walter used to be like without any further input from people I didn't ask for it from. But I have to say that based on how Walter has been acting since he woke up from Drew's attack, he's not like that anymore. And he's worth taking a risk on." Paige told him.
"I wouldn't disagree except to say I don't think it was about the attack. It was about you and your date with him. I'd talked with Walter quite a bit the day after he woke up and I'm certain he is correct in giving you credit for the change in him." Toby told her.
"But in the same breath, I'd caution you, because Walter does have some peculiar tastes in things. If you get my meaning." Toby told her.
"I'm not naïve Toby, I'm an experienced woman and just like everything else in a relationship, the people involved just have to find a satisfying middle ground for…sex." Paige told him, trying not to be embarrassed. She didn't really have any problems talking about intimate things, but she barely knew Toby.
Walter just smiled the whole time after Paige first spoke to Patrick. He heard the entire exchange of the four people as he had been going to get a cup of coffee when Patrick first spoke so he stopped and stepped to the side and rested his shoulder against the wall.
Toby nearly leaped out of his skin as he walked out of the kitchen on the way to his desk. From the corner of his eye he saw someone standing there at the foot of the stairs to the loft. He grabbed his chest when he looked fully over at Walter and worry spread across his face.
Walter just smiled and shook his head and walked on into the kitchen.
He slipped up behind Paige and kissed her shoulder.
"I appreciate what you said in defense of what was said." Walter told her.
"You're welcome. Besides, we all have a past, things we're not proud of. Where would we be if those things were never looked past? I mean, it might take me a bit longer to really trust you, but that doesn't mean I won't give you the chance." Paige smiled as she turned around and stared up into his dark eyes.
Walter grinned and slipped his arms about her waist and hugged her gently.
"A bit longer to trust me huh? Are you sure?" Walter asked gently.
"You don't think I should?" Paige asked as he pulled back from her.
"After finding out I wasn't the best of people, you still willingly got into a car with me driving and risked your life in the hopes that I would keep you safe. There isn't a lot more to tell me about how much you trust me Paige. Except you are allowing me to be around Ralph. I would say if you trust me enough for that, you trust me enough for anything." Walter told her.
Paige smiled.
"You got me there." Paige told him as she tilted her head up and they kissed gently.
Cabe walked back into the Garage after returning from Homeland. He quickly sat down with Mark, Megan, Paige and Walter and explained that Homeland had agreed that Centipede could continue running cases for Homeland. But Walter could not go on any of the missions, nor was he to be allowed to interface with any systems. What Centipede did on the side was their business. He handed Paige a USB drive that had the email as they requested, in case they needed more time. Sylvester was provided a system password to examine the system for one hour after initial login, after that it would be terminated.
Sylvester switched his laptop to simulcast his screen to the monitor tree so Walter could watch from a distance and not have direct access. Sylvester was barely in the commissary for a minute.
"Sly, the commissary isn't the right approach at this time. Let's get to the email instead." Walter called over his shoulder.
"Are you sure?" Sylvester asked.
"Yes, a quick glance tells us nothing is abnormal. And it is unlikely if it was to be used to pay for the act that it would be deposited this quickly." Walter told him.
Paige nodded at Sylvester as he looked at her for confirmation and so he switched to the email server.
Walter watched impatiently as Sylvester moved too slowly to get from point to point and then the email came up and Walter's eyes were flashing back and forth on the numbers contained in it.
"Wait Sly, run a recursive algorithm on this section of numbers." Walter told him as he gestured.
Sly nodded and did so.
Walter's head tilted as he watched the read out.
"What is it Walter?" Paige asked.
"I know this number, but it is a little disjointed." Walter told her while tapping his head. "Toby, ping this address." Walter said as he looked at him.
Toby quickly switched windows and sent out a ping and sent the result to another monitor on the tree.
Walter nodded.
"This was sent from a bot in Thailand." Walter told them.
"Does that help or hurt?" Paige asked.
"It helps a lot. Their security is good but I'm better." Walter grinned.
"Except you can't do any of the actions for this, son." Cabe reminded him.
"Damn it, Sly's good but he doesn't have the skill." Walter told him.
"I can type sixty six words a minute if you just tell me." Sylvester told him.
"No offense Sly, but you have to hit at least seventy eight words a minute to make it through their security barrier." Walter told him.
"Surely with a broken hand you can't do that." Sylvester complained.
"Actually I can type eighty one words per minute with just my left." Walter smiled.
"Well I'm no computer expert but last time I applied for a secretarial job I was able to type eighty three words a minute with no mistakes." Paige offered.
Walter looked at Cabe and Cabe nodded.
Sylvester made sure the screen capture was still running and that the microphone was turned on and picking up what was being said. He moved and Paige sat down at his laptop and after prepping the programs Walter told her she'd need to use, Walter began telling her what to type. They watched as the server gave up its secrets and they came away with another server. This time in Norway.
Overall they were led through twenty two countries and forty eight different servers but they finally came to a server at the LA office of Homeland.
Walter looked back at Cabe and Cabe stood there with his mouth open.
"I don't suppose they gave us permission to infiltrate their own system?" Walter asked sarcastically.
Cabe just shook his head.
"At the time this message was sent, I was undergoing surgery to repair the damage to the side of my skull." Walter told them all. "Clearly, this demonstrates, I did not do this."
Everyone nodded but still were hesitant in rejoicing. This meant someone at Homeland had anticipated Walter being brought in and wanted him removed from helping with Homeland cases.
Walter finally shrugged.
"Sly you can end the screen capture. Make several backups of the video and put one on the USB drive for Cabe to take to Homeland." Paige said.
Walter looked at his watch.
"It's time to pick up Ralph and I think this was a hell of a first day." Walter grinned at Paige.
Paige smiled knowing he meant they should take off early.
"Well we can bring Ralph back here, he needs his time with Toby anyway. Then we can go to dinner." Paige decided.
Walter wrapped his arms around Paige.
"It was fun working with you on tracking this down." Walter smiled at her before he kissed her.
"It was a little nerve wrecking too, I definitely don't like having someone's fate in my hands like that." Paige smiled back.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well! A very Happy New Year to each of you! If you party Saturday night, don't drink and drive. Hope to see you all Sunday!
Railman - Indeed they do. I wouldn't be surprised...most people regardless to how much they like a place tend to put in a few changes to make it reflect them more. Well, it looks like someone else is indeed setting Walter up...and from Homeland...Pesky government for you...the slightest hint of involvment in something and out the door you go. lol Looks like they are willing to give him some room...or rope to hang himself. I pity Toby if he doesn't rein it in soon.
Jennee77 - Your welcome! And thank you for sharing about your aunt! It is a long road to that possibility, so I'll keep thinking about it and I appreciate your words over it!
Marti - Isn't he something? hehe Definitely would have liked to seen this side of him in the show! lol I know in notes I have said it is our favorite insane genius Mark Collins but after reading your comment I thought to go back and see if there was anything from the show I could us in the story to "anchor it" in the story that he is that Mark but, there is so little available that isn't "bad". The main take away of it being Mark had a gift for radio communications. And at this time, there just anything in the story that can loop to that.
JerBr23 - hehe Toby loves to get others into trouble too sometimes. lol And we know he isn't above brow beating Sly. Yep they both really like the new place. Wait until they see the main house. LOL That seems so far away. So far it looks like Walter didn't have anything to do with it. As for Patrick...hope you enjoyed the drama! lol
Sunday's story is a little risqué with some backstory for Walter and Paige. Monday will be some backstory for Happy and Walter...maybe something ris·qué too. lol We're starting the New Year off with a bang! lol And remember, the old saying, whatever you are doing on New Year's eve will be what you do for the majority of the new year, so make it something you enjoy! See you next year!
To the Adventure! -Tim